Independence day of the United States of America

United States, officially United States of America, abbreviated U.S. or U.S.A., byname America, country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The conterminous states are bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The United States is the fourth largest country in the world in area (after Russia, Canada, and China). The national capital is Washington, which is coextensive with the District of Columbia, the federal capital region created in 1790. The major characteristic of the United States is probably its great variety. Its physical environment ranges from the Arctic to the subtropical, from the moist rain forest to the arid desert, from the rugged mountain peak to the flat prairie. Although the total population of the United States is large by world standards, its overall population density is relatively low. The country embraces some of the world’s largest urban concentrations as well as some of the most extensive areas that are almost devoid of habitation. The United States contains a highly diverse population. Unlike a country such as China that largely incorporated indigenous peoples, the United States has a diversity that to a great degree has come from an immense and sustained global immigration. Probably no other country has a wider range of racial, ethnic, and cultural types than does the United States. In addition to the presence of surviving Native Americans (including American Indians, Aleuts, and Eskimos) and the descendants of Africans taken as enslaved persons to the New World, the national character has been enriched, tested, and constantly redefined by the tens of millions of immigrants who by and large have come to America hoping for greater social, political, and economic opportunities than they had in the places they left. (It should be noted that although the terms “America” and “Americans” are often used as synonyms for the United States and its citizens, respectively, they are also used in a broader sense for North, South, and Central America collectively and their citizens.) The United States is the world’s greatest economic power, measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The nation’s wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources and its enormous agricultural output, but it owes more to the country’s highly developed industry. Despite its relative economic self-sufficiency in many areas, the United States is the most important single factor in world trade by virtue of the sheer size of its economy. Its exports and imports represent major proportions of the world total. The United States also impinges on the global economy as a source of and as a destination for investment capital. The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world’s highest standards of living. The United States is relatively young by world standards, being less than 250 years old; it achieved its current size only in the mid-20th century. America was the first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government. In its first century and a half, the country was mainly preoccupied with its own territorial expansion and economic growth and with social debates that ultimately led to civil war and a healing period that is still not complete. In the 20th century the United States emerged as a world power, and since World War II it has been one of the preeminent powers. It has not accepted this mantle easily nor always carried it willingly; the principles and ideals of its founders have been tested by the pressures and exigencies of its dominant status. The United States still offers its residents opportunities for unparalleled personal advancement and wealth. However, the depletion of its resources, the contamination of its environment, and the continuing social and economic inequality that perpetuates areas of poverty and blight all threaten the fabric of the country. The District of Columbia is discussed in the article Washington. For discussion of other major U.S. cities, see the articles Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Political units in association with the United States include Puerto Rico, discussed in the article Puerto Rico, and several Pacific islands, discussed in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. Land The two great sets of elements that mold the physical environment of the United States are, first, the geologic, which determines the main patterns of landforms, drainage, and mineral resources and influences soils to a lesser degree, and, second, the atmospheric, which dictates not only climate and weather but also in large part the distribution of soils, plants, and animals. Although these elements are not entirely independent of one another, each produces on a map patterns that are so profoundly different that essentially they remain two separate geographies. (Since this article covers only the conterminous United States, see also the articles Alaska and Hawaii.) Relief The centre of the conterminous United States is a great sprawling interior lowland, reaching from the ancient shield of central Canada on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. To east and west this lowland rises, first gradually and then abruptly, to mountain ranges that divide it from the sea on both sides. The two mountain systems differ drastically. The Appalachian Mountains on the east are low, almost unbroken, and in the main set well back from the Atlantic. From New York to the Mexican border stretches the low Coastal Plain, which faces the ocean along a swampy, convoluted coast. The gently sloping surface of the plain extends out beneath the sea, where it forms the continental shelf, which, although submerged beneath shallow ocean water, is geologically identical to the Coastal Plain. Southward the plain grows wider, swinging westward in Georgia and Alabama to truncate the Appalachians along their southern extremity and separate the interior lowland from the Gulf. West of the Central Lowland is the mighty Cordillera, part of a global mountain system that rings the Pacific basin. The Cordillera encompasses fully one-third of the United States, with an internal variety commensurate with its size. At its eastern margin lie the Rocky Mountains, a high, diverse, and discontinuous chain that stretches all the way from New Mexico to the Canadian border. The Cordillera’s western edge is a Pacific coastal chain of rugged mountains and inland valleys, the whole rising spectacularly from the sea without benefit of a coastal plain. Pent between the Rockies and the Pacific chain is a vast intermontane complex of basins, plateaus, and isolated ranges so large and remarkable that they merit recognition as a region separate from the Cordillera itself. These regions—the Interior Lowlands and their upland fringes, the Appalachian Mountain system, the Atlantic Plain, the Western Cordillera, and the Western Intermontane Region—are so various that they require further division into 24 major subregions, or provinces. Andrew Jackson is supposed to have remarked that the United States begins at the Alleghenies, implying that only west of the mountains, in the isolation and freedom of the great Interior Lowlands, could people finally escape Old World influences. Whether or not the lowlands constitute the country’s cultural core is debatable, but there can be no doubt that they comprise its geologic core and in many ways its geographic core as well. This enormous region rests upon an ancient, much-eroded platform of complex crystalline rocks that have for the most part lain undisturbed by major orogenic (mountain-building) activity for more than 600,000,000 years. Over much of central Canada, these Precambrian rocks are exposed at the surface and form the continent’s single largest topographical region, the formidable and ice-scoured Canadian Shield. In the United States most of the crystalline platform is concealed under a deep blanket of sedimentary rocks. In the far north, however, the naked Canadian Shield extends into the United States far enough to form two small but distinctive landform regions: the rugged and occasionally spectacular Adirondack Mountains of northern New York and the more-subdued and austere Superior Upland of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. As in the rest of the shield, glaciers have stripped soils away, strewn the surface with boulders and other debris, and obliterated preglacial drainage systems. Most attempts at farming in these areas have been abandoned, but the combination of a comparative wilderness in a northern climate, clear lakes, and white-water streams has fostered the development of both regions as year-round outdoor recreation areas. Mineral wealth in the Superior Upland is legendary. Iron lies near the surface and close to the deepwater ports of the upper Great Lakes. Iron is mined both north and south of Lake Superior, but best known are the colossal deposits of Minnesota’s Mesabi Range, for more than a century one of the world’s richest and a vital element in America’s rise to industrial power. In spite of depletion, the Minnesota and Michigan mines still yield a major proportion of the country’s iron and a significant percentage of the world’s supply. South of the Adirondack Mountains and the Superior Upland lies the boundary between crystalline and sedimentary rocks; abruptly, everything is different. The core of this sedimentary region—the heartland of the United States—is the great Central Lowland, which stretches for 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from New York to central Texas and north another 1,000 miles to the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. To some, the landscape may seem dull, for heights of more than 2,000 feet (600 metres) are unusual, and truly rough terrain is almost lacking. Landscapes are varied, however, largely as the result of glaciation that directly or indirectly affected most of the subregion. North of the Missouri–Ohio river line, the advance and readvance of continental ice left an intricate mosaic of boulders, sand, gravel, silt, and clay and a complex pattern of lakes and drainage channels, some abandoned, some still in use. The southern part of the Central Lowland is quite different, covered mostly with loess (wind-deposited silt) that further subdued the already low relief surface. Elsewhere, especially near major rivers, postglacial streams carved the loess into rounded hills, and visitors have aptly compared their billowing shapes to the waves of the sea. Above all, the loess produces soil of extraordinary fertility. As the Mesabi iron was a major source of America’s industrial wealth, its agricultural prosperity has been rooted in Midwestern loess. The Central Lowland resembles a vast saucer, rising gradually to higher lands on all sides. Southward and eastward, the land rises gradually to three major plateaus. Beyond the reach of glaciation to the south, the sedimentary rocks have been raised into two broad upwarps, separated from one another by the great valley of the Mississippi River. The Ozark Plateau lies west of the river and occupies most of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas; on the east the Interior Low Plateaus dominate central Kentucky and Tennessee. Except for two nearly circular patches of rich limestone country—the Nashville Basin of Tennessee and the Kentucky Bluegrass region—most of both plateau regions consists of sandstone uplands, intricately dissected by streams. Local relief runs to several hundreds of feet in most places, and visitors to the region must travel winding roads along narrow stream valleys. The soils there are poor, and mineral resources are scanty. Eastward from the Central Lowland the Appalachian Plateau—a narrow band of dissected uplands that strongly resembles the Ozark Plateau and Interior Low Plateaus in steep slopes, wretched soils, and endemic poverty—forms a transition between the interior plains and the Appalachian Mountains. Usually, however, the Appalachian Plateau is considered a subregion of the Appalachian Mountains, partly on grounds of location, partly because of geologic structure. Unlike the other plateaus, where rocks are warped upward, the rocks there form an elongated basin, wherein bituminous coal has been preserved from erosion. This Appalachian coal, like the Mesabi iron that it complements in U.S. industry, is extraordinary. Extensive, thick, and close to the surface, it has stoked the furnaces of northeastern steel mills for decades and helps explain the huge concentration of heavy industry along the lower Great Lakes. The western flanks of the Interior Lowlands are the Great Plains, a territory of awesome bulk that spans the full distance between Canada and Mexico in a swath nearly 500 miles (800 km) wide. The Great Plains were built by successive layers of poorly cemented sand, silt, and gravel—debris laid down by parallel east-flowing streams from the Rocky Mountains. Seen from the east, the surface of the Great Plains rises inexorably from about 2,000 feet (600 metres) near Omaha, Nebraska, to more than 6,000 feet (1,825 metres) at Cheyenne, Wyoming, but the climb is so gradual that popular legend holds the Great Plains to be flat. True flatness is rare, although the High Plains of western Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and eastern Colorado come close. More commonly, the land is broadly rolling, and parts of the northern plains are sharply dissected into badlands. The main mineral wealth of the Interior Lowlands derives from fossil fuels. Coal occurs in structural basins protected from erosion—high-quality bituminous in the Appalachian, Illinois, and western Kentucky basins; and subbituminous and lignite in the eastern and northwestern Great Plains. Petroleum and natural gas have been found in nearly every state between the Appalachians and the Rockies, but the Midcontinent Fields of western Texas and the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, and Kansas surpass all others. Aside from small deposits of lead and zinc, metallic minerals are of little importance. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States

2021/07/04

Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus

Belarus, country of eastern Europe. Until it became independent in 1991, Belarus, formerly known as Belorussia or White Russia, was the smallest of the three Slavic republics included in the Soviet Union (the larger two being Russia and Ukraine). While Belarusians share a distinct ethnic identity and language, they never previously enjoyed unity and political sovereignty, except during a brief period in 1918. Belarusian history is thus less an isolable national narrative than a study of regional forces, their interplay, and their effects on the Belarusian people. The territory that is now Belarus underwent partition and changed hands repeatedly; as a result, much of the history of Belarus is inseparable from that of its neighbours. Since independence Belarus has retained close ties to its most dominant neighbour, Russia. In 1999 the two countries signed the Union State Foundation Treaty, which aimed to create a politically integrated confederation with a common currency; the precise nature of the partnership, however, remained unclear well into the 21st century. The legacy of Belarus’s Soviet past also continued to manifest itself, both in the persistent prominence of communist political parties and in the country’s authoritarian style of government. About one-fifth of the population of Belarus resides in the centrally located capital, Minsk, a sprawling modern city that was almost entirely rebuilt after its near destruction in World War II. Land Belarus is a landlocked country bordered by Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest, by Russia to the north and east, by Ukraine to the south, and by Poland to the west. In area, it is roughly one-third the size of its southern neighbour, Ukraine. Relief The topography of Belarus was largely shaped by glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch (i.e., about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). Much of the country consists of flat lowlands separated by low level-topped hills and uplands. The highest point, Dzyarzhynskaya Hill, is only 1,135 feet (346 metres) above sea level, and more than half the surface area of Belarus lies below 660 feet (200 metres). The higher areas are formed by ridges of glacial morainic material dating from the Valday glaciation, the last advance of Pleistocene ice in eastern Europe. The largest of the ridges, the Belarusian Ridge, extends northeastward from the Polish border on the southwest to north of Minsk, where it widens into the Minsk Upland before turning eastward to link up with the Smolensk-Moscow Upland. Running transverse to the main Belarusian Ridge, the Ashmyany Upland, consisting of terminal moraines from the same glacial period, lies between Minsk and Vilnius, in neighbouring Lithuania. The surfaces of its ridges tend to be flat or gently rolling and covered by light sandy podzolic soils; they are largely cleared of their original forest cover. Separated by the morainic ridges lie wide lowlands, which are mostly poorly drained and marshy and contain many small lakes. To the north of the main line of morainic hills are two broad plains: the north of the republic comprises the Polatsk Lowland, and the northwestern corner, near Hrodna, is the Neman (Belarusian: Nyoman) Lowland. South of the Belarusian Ridge the wide and very flat Central Byarezina Plain gently slopes southward to merge imperceptibly with the even more extensive Pripet Marshes (Belarusian: Palyessye, “Woodlands”). A waterlogged area in the basin of the Pripet (Belarusian: Prypyats’) River, a main tributary of the Dnieper (Belarusian: Dnyapro), the Pripet Marshes extend southward into Ukraine and occupy a structural trough. The trough is filled with outwash sands and gravels deposited by the meltwaters of the last Pleistocene glaciation. The minimal variation in relief makes the Pripet Marshes among the largest wetlands in Europe. Drainage Belarus has more than 20,000 streams, with a total length of about 56,300 miles (90,600 km), and more than 10,000 lakes. The greater part of the republic lies in the basin of the Dnieper—which flows across Belarus from north to south on its way to the Black Sea—and the basins of its major tributaries, the Byarezina and Pripet on the right bank and the Sozh on the left. In the north the Polatsk Lowland is drained by the Western Dvina (Dzvina) River to the Baltic Sea, to which also flows the Neman (Nyoman) in the west. The extreme southwestern corner of Belarus is drained by the Mukhavyets, a tributary of the Bug (Buh) River, which forms part of the border with Poland and flows to the Baltic Sea. The Mukhavyets and Pripet are linked by a ship canal, thereby connecting the Baltic and Black seas. The rivers are generally frozen from December to late March, after which occur about two months of maximum flow. Among the largest lakes are Narach, Osveyskoye, and Drysvyaty. Soils About three-fifths of Belarus is covered by podzolic soils. On the uplands these soils are mainly clay loams developed on loess subsoils, which can be productive with the use of fertilizers. The plains and lowlands have mostly sandy podzols of low fertility interspersed with swampy clays, which have a high humus content and can be very fertile when drained. Climate Belarus has a cool continental climate moderated by maritime influences from the Atlantic Ocean. Average January temperatures range from the mid-20s F (about −4 °C) in the southwest to the upper teens F (about −8 °C) in the northeast, but thaw days are frequent; correspondingly, the frost-free period decreases from more than 170 days in the southwest to 130 in the northeast. Maximum temperatures in July are generally in the mid-60s F (about 18 °C). Rainfall is moderate, though higher than over most of the vast Russian Plain of eastern Europe, and ranges from about 21 inches (530 mm) on the lowlands to some 28 inches (700 mm) on the higher morainic ridges. Maximum rainfall occurs from June to August. Plant and animal life The natural vegetation of the country is mixed deciduous and coniferous forest. In the north, conifers, notably pine and spruce, tend to predominate; southward the proportion of deciduous trees, such as oak and hornbeam, increases. Birch is common everywhere, especially as the first growth on burned or disturbed areas. Over the centuries, the clearing of forest land for agricultural use has removed the greater part of the primeval forest, especially the deciduous trees, which prefer richer soils. In particular, the forest of the uplands had largely been removed by the late 16th century. The Belovezhskaya (Belarusian: Byelavyezhskaya) Forest, on the western border with Poland (into which it extends), is one of the largest surviving areas of primeval mixed forest in Europe, encompassing more than 460 square miles (1,200 square km). The Belarusian portion of the forest was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. Preserved for centuries as the private hunting forest of first the Polish kings and later the Russian tsars, it was made a nature reserve (and later a national park) on both sides of the frontier. The rich forest vegetation that once covered much of Europe survives here, dominated by trees that have grown to exceptional heights. The forest is the major home of the European bison, or wisent, which had become extinct in the wild following World War I but was reintroduced through captive breeding. Elk, deer, and boars also are found there and in other forests of Belarus, together with small game, hares, squirrels, foxes, badgers, martens, and, along the rivers, beavers. Birds include grouse, partridge, woodcocks, snipes, and ducks, and many of the rivers are well stocked with fish. Environmental concerns The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in April 1986 resulted in a number of immediate and long-term consequences for the environment of Belarus, where most of the fallout occurred. In the early 21st century about one-fifth of Belarus’s land was still radioactively contaminated. In addition to the land damage, the medical and psychological costs of the accident included an increase in birth defects and cancer (particularly of the thyroid) and a declining birth rate, at least partly in response to fears of those defects. Environmental activists also have expressed concerns about poor air quality and pollution in Minsk and other major cities. People of Belarus - Ethnic groups Ethnic Belarusians make up about four-fifths of the country’s population. Russians, many of whom migrated to the Belorussian S.S.R. in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, form the second largest ethnic group, accounting for roughly one-tenth of the population. Most of the remainder are Poles and Ukrainians, with much smaller numbers of Jews, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Tatars. Before World War II (1939–45), Jews constituted the second largest group in the republic (and more than half the urban population); the genocide of European Jewry and postwar emigration nearly eliminated Jews from the republic. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Belarus

2021/07/03

Przyjęcie z okazji Święta Sił Zbrojnych Republiki Czeskiej

W piątek 25 czerwca 2021 roku w hotelu Regent w Warszawie odbyło się przyjęcie z okazji Święta Sił Zbrojnych RCz. Uroczyste przemówienie wygłosili zastępca Ambasadora Jiří Kyrian oraz Attaché Obrony płk. Dawid Franta. 30 czerwca 1918 r. w Darney dwudziesty pierwszy i dwudziesty drugi pułk strzeleckie brygady czechosłowackiej złożył przysięgę wierności przyszłej Republice.

2021/07/02

Belgium chairs the Nuclear Suppliers Group

Since June 25, 2020, Belgium has held the annual chairmanship of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The Nuclear Suppliers Group is a multilateral regime aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. The NSG thus supports the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which remains the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. The NSG was established in 1975 and has 48 member countries.

2021/07/02

Otwarcie parku „Mała Chorwacja“ w Krakowie

28 czerwca w Krakowie został otwarty park „Mała Chorwacja“. W ceremonii wziął udział Ambasador Tomislav Vidošević, Zastępca Prezydenta Miasta Krakowa Bogusław Kosmider, Konsul Honorowy Republiki Chorwacji z siedzibą w Krakowie Paweł Włodarczyk oraz prorektor UJ Jarosław Górniak. Oprawę muzyczną wydarzenia zapewniła muzyka orkiestry dętej oraz program rozrywkowy z muzyką chorwacką. Na terenie parku otwarto deptak, strefę rekreacyjną, chorwacką promenadę z tablicami informacyjnymi o największych chorwackich miastach oraz nowopowstałą piaszczystą plażę.

2021/07/02

Prezentacja pociągu na wodór iLint firmy Alstom w obecności Ambasadora Francji

Ambasador Francji Frédéric Billet wziął udział 22 czerwca 2021 r. jako jej gość honorowy w prezentacji pociągu na wodór iLint produkowanego przez firmę Alstom. Firma Alstom sprowadziła do Polski pierwszy na świecie pociąg na wodór iLint, aby go zaprezentować zaproszonym polskim oficjelom oraz potencjalnym klientom podczas przejazdu po torze testowym Instytutu Kolejnictwa w Żmigrodzie.

2021/07/01

Embajador Javier Higuera visitó Torun para participar en el Welconomy Forum y reunirse con el Vicemariscal de Cuyavia y Pomerania y el Alcalde

Durante los días 21 y 22 de junio de 2021, el Embajador de Colombia en Polonia, Javier Darío Higuera Ángel, realizó una visita de trabajo a Torun, ciudad reconocida por ser el lugar de nacimiento del astrónomo Nicolás Copérnico y estar en la lista de ciudades Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO.

2021/07/01

O udziale w akcji pamięci z okazji 80. rocznicy wybuchu Wielkiej Wojny Ojczyźnianej

O udziale w akcji pamięci z okazji 80. rocznicy wybuchu Wielkiej Wojny Ojczyźnianej 22.06.2021 г. W dniu 22 czerwca 2021 roku Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Białorusi w Polsce Aleksander Czesnowski oraz Dyrektor Centrum Kulturalnego Białorusi w Warszawie Siergiej Bałaszczenko wraz z innymi pracownikami Ambasady złożyli kwiaty do grobów żołnierzy radzieckich w Zambrowie. Tutaj pochowano żołnierzy Armii Czerwonej, którzy zginęli w pierwszych dniach wojny.

2021/07/01

Independence day of the Republic of Rwanda

Rwanda, landlocked republic lying south of the Equator in east-central Africa. Known for its breathtaking scenery, Rwanda is often referred to as le pays des mille collines (French: “land of a thousand hills”). The capital is Kigali, located in the centre of the country on the Ruganwa River. Like Burundi, its neighbour to the south, Rwanda is a geographically small country with one of the highest population densities in sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda also shares with Burundi a long history of monarchical rule. Unlike what happened in Burundi, however, the demise of the Rwandan kingship came about through a grassroots Hutu-led upheaval that occurred before the country became independent in 1962. Ethnic strife between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi factions peaked in 1994. Civil war and genocide at that time left Rwanda’s economy and social fabric in shambles. (See Rwanda genocide of 1994.) The years that followed have been characterized by reconstruction and ethnic reconciliation. Land Rwanda is bounded to the north by Uganda, to the east by Tanzania, to the south by Burundi, and to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) and Lake Kivu. Relief The landscape is reminiscent of a tropical Switzerland. Its dominant feature is a chain of mountains of rugged beauty that runs on a north-south axis and forms part of the Congo-Nile divide. From the volcanoes of the Virunga (Birunga) Mountains in the northwest—where the Karisimbi reaches 14,787 feet (4,507 metres)—the elevation drops to 4,000 feet (1,220 metres) in the swampy Kagera (Akagera) River valley in the east. The interior highlands consist of rolling hills and valleys, yielding to a low-lying depression west of the Congo-Nile divide along the shores of Lake Kivu. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Drainage Except for the Ruzizi, through which the waters of Lake Kivu empty into Lake Tanganyika, most of the country’s rivers are found on the eastern side of the Congo-Nile divide, with the Kagera, the major eastern river, forming much of the boundary between Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. Soils The best soils, formed from volcanic lavas and alluvium, are found, respectively, in the northwest and along the lower portions of the larger river valleys. Elsewhere the largely metamorphic bedrock has produced soils of generally poor quality. The combination of steep slopes, abundant rainfall, deforestation, and intensive farming has set in motion a process of extreme soil erosion that requires a burdensome investment of time and energy to curtail. Climate Elevation accounts for Rwanda’s generally mild temperatures, which average 70 °F (21 °C) year-round at Kigali, for example, in the interior highlands. There are significant variations, however, between the region of the volcanoes in the northwest, where heavy rainfalls are accompanied by lower average temperatures, and the warmer and drier interior highlands. The average annual rainfall in the latter is about 45 inches (1,140 millimetres), which is concentrated in two rainy seasons (roughly February to May and October to December). Plant and animal life Only a small percentage of the country is covered in natural forest vegetation. Reforestation programs have added eucalyptus trees to previously denuded hillsides and roadsides, though not on a scale sufficient to effectively counteract erosion. A lush Mediterranean-type vegetation covers the shores of Lake Kivu, which stands in stark contrast to the papyrus swamps of Rwanda’s eastern frontier and the dense bamboo forests of the Virunga Mountains to the north. There, among the volcanoes, lives Rwanda’s main tourist attraction: the mountain gorilla, protected in Parc National des Volcans (also known as Parc des Birugna). For sheer diversity of animal life, however, no other region can match the resources of the Akagera National Park. This picturesque park contains significant populations of buffalo, zebra, impala, and other range animals, as well as baboons, warthogs, lions, and hippopotamuses. Rare species, such as the giant pangolin (an anteater), are also part of Akagera’s diverse fauna. People - Ethnic groups As in Burundi, the major ethnic groups in Rwanda are Hutu and Tutsi, respectively accounting for more than four-fifths and about one-seventh of the total population. The Twa, a hunter-gatherer group, constitute less than 1 percent of the population. Other minorities include a small group of Europeans (mostly missionaries, employees of relief and development programs, and entrepreneurs), a small number of Asian merchants, and Africans from Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere. Social differences between the Hutu and Tutsi traditionally were profound, as shown by the system of patron-client ties (buhake, or “cattle contract”) through which the Tutsi, with a strong pastoralist tradition, gained social, economic, and political ascendancy over the Hutu, who were primarily agriculturalists. The formerly more distinct pastoral and agricultural systems have become well integrated, and nearly all farm households now engage simultaneously in crop and livestock production. During the Hutu revolution that began in late 1959, some 150,000 to 300,000 Tutsi were forced out of the country, which thus reduced the former ruling aristocracy to an even smaller minority. Since the end of the 1994 genocide, many Tutsi have returned to Rwanda to reclaim their heritage. Languages The country has three official languages: Rwanda (more properly, Kinyarwanda), English, and French. Rwanda, a Bantu language belonging to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family, is spoken by virtually all Rwandans. It is closely related to Rundi, which is spoken in the neighbouring country of Burundi. English and French have traditionally been spoken by only a small fraction of the population, although English was designated the language of educational instruction in 2008. Swahili is widely spoken in the towns and is still the principal means of communication with Africans from neighbouring countries. Religion Nowhere in Africa has Christianity had a more decisive impact than in Rwanda. The Hutu revolution derived much of its egalitarian inspiration from the teachings of the European clergy, and Catholic seminaries served as recruiting grounds for Hutu leaders. More than two-fifths of the country’s population is Roman Catholic, more than one-third is Protestant, and more than one-tenth is Adventist. Muslims, the nonreligious, and members of Christian schismatic religious groups collectively account for less than one-tenth of the population. More … Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Rwanda

2021/07/01